Penalised for tipping coffee down drain

CRITICS of on-the-spot fines for littering say penalties are often handed out for trivial offences – including dropping orange peel or pouring coffee down a drain.

One reason is said to be the use by councils of private collection companies to enforce littering rules and hand out penalties.

The coffee incident involved retired civil servant Sue Peckitt, from Ealing, West London, whose fine was dropped after she complained. She was later sent a £20 gift voucher as compensation.

A Hertfordshire market trader, Luke Gutteridge, was handed a fine after he dropped a piece of orange peel. He contested the case and the fine was withdrawn.

Both cases were featured by BBC’s Panorama programme earlier this year. It sent an undercover reporter to work for a company contracted by several councils to enforce litter rules, Kingdom Services.

Despite rules which forbid the use of targets, the reporter was told by a manager that for ‘every ticket over four, you get a little competency allowance’.

Asked to explain the payment, the manager said: ‘It’s a bonus.’ In one month, he said, he had made £987 in bonus money.